Conventional fishing sinkers serve a variety of functions. As projectile weight, they aid the anglar in attaining greater casting distances so that he can place his bait in desired locations. Upon contacting the water, being denser than water, they sink into the fishing environment and carry with them the accompanying bait until they reach a predetermined depth or, if unfettered by a float, they continue to sink until coming to rest on the floor of the fishing bed. Upon coming to rest, fishing sinkers act, to some degree, as anchors for the purpose of partially maintaining the bait in the desired cast location. It is in this final function that conventional sinkers prove to be unsatisfactory in surf fishing or in any type of fishing environment in which strong water motion in the fishing environment is encountered.
A conventional fishing sinker is usually made of a dense material, such as lead, and molded into a relatively compact shape. Whatever anchoring action it has on the floor of the fishing bed depends on the frictional forces exerted on it by the floor. Such forces, when using a customary weight sinker of two or three ounces, are typically insufficient to keep the sinker from being tossed about or rolled along the floor by strong water currents and wave actions. As a result, the angler's hook, bait and sinker become displaced from the desired location and often become ensnarled in underwater obstructions and forever lost.
Others in the past have proposed providing conventional fishing sinkers with various configurations of straight spikes to engage the floor and, thus, provide additional anchoring. Unfortunately, such spiked sinkers have been largely unsuccessfully since they provide little useful contact into the water floor. Indeed, alternate forms of such spiked sinkers have been equipped with upwardly directed spikes and employed as grapplers wherein the fouling properties of such upwardly directed spikes have been utilized to permanently secure a line to the floor of the fishing bed. Such properties are highly undesirable in the usual fishing sinker which must be easily retrievable upon demand.
Spiked fishing sinkers have other undesired and dangerous properties. The spikes, when in rapid motion as encountered in the usual casting and retrieving actions, can impale and damage the catch and can do the same to the surrounding human beings.
Another sinker requirement, from the standpoint of achieving maximum distance in surf casting, is that the sinker be reasonably streamlined and that it does not tend to flutter or oscillate so that it offers a minimum resistance to its travel through the air. The wind resistance contributed by the baited hook, the weight, and the line will also be in factor in determining the distance achieved by the surf caster.
The sinker should hold the baited hook or hooks at the location to which it has been cast until a fish has been caught or the fisherman desires to retrieve it. This function of the sinker introduces additional requirements which are not entirely consistent with the ability to cast the sinker as far as possible. The fisherman generally desires to keep some tension on the line so that he will be aware of a fish picking up the bait. On a windy day, the action of the wind and waves on the line cause a pull on the sinker which is frequently sufficient to dislodge it and the baited hook sinker and line will gradually wash up on the beach. Surf fisherman using conventional casting reels most frequently use "pyramid" sinkers weighing approximately four ounces. Those who use reels of the "spinning" variety, in which a relatively light "monofilament" line is employed, may use sinkers of two or three ounces. When the wind and waves are such that the sinker which the fisherman is using will not hold the baited hook in the desired position, the fisherman resorts to a heavier sinker. Under unfavorable conditions, it is not uncommon for surf fisherman to resort to sinkers weighing six or eight ounces. These heavy sinkers make casting much more difficult and frequently prevent the fisherman from determining when a fish has picked up the bait.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a fishing weight that is suitable for engaging the fishing bed.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a fishing weight that can be easily removed from the fishing bed after anchoring.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a fishing weight that has an aerodynamic and hydrodynamic configuration.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a fishing weight that is relatively easy to manufacture and uncomplicated to use.
These and other objects and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from a reading of the attached specification and appended claims